Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Most Tabletop RPGs ( Dungeons & Dragons , Apocalypse World , Traveller , etc . ) offer a diverseness of power fantasies where players can create powerful , emancipated champion . Other tabletop RPGs , in contrast , are about musician characters disfranchise by the totalitarian companionship they live in , push to see their every word of honor and human activity lest the boots of self-assurance squeeze them down . Whether trying to ride out on the good side of the Soviet secret police during World War II or blinding the panopticon gaze of an all - knowing supercomputer , these roleplaying game are very much about the persecute seeking power , hope , and small moments of freedom where they can .
flying lizard are brute of fantasy and myth . Spaceships are far from being household particular . wizard and psychic force are n’t exactly verifiable fields of science . Oppression , on the other paw , is very much a real thing in the New daytime , whether in republics that fail to live up to their popular paragon or autocracies with no desire to don any façade of liberty . Tabletop RPGs andvideo games with tyrannical settingsare mostly more relevant to contemporary struggles than games about heroes and legerdemain . At the same prison term , musician of these games may have worry connecting with them if their narrative leans too far into bleakness and cynicism .
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Just as repulsion tabletopRPG systems likeDreadmust strike a Libra the Balance between " horror and hope , " so too must dystopian tabletop RPGs raise their sober commentary on systematic oppression , conformity , and complicity with a snatch of genuine optimism . Some of these RPGs below buoy up the mood with farcical humor , others with the possibility of social alteration ; some have special gameplay mechanics for act the lowly yet cute moments of joy , levity , and humanity hoi polloi fight for even under the harshest of regimes .
Tabletop RPG - Paranoia
Paranoia , currently pass on by Mongoose Publishing , can best be discover as a dark RPG pastiche of post - apocalyptic dystopian films from the 1970slikeLogan ’s RunorTHX-1138 . In a straggle hole-and-corner trap call Alpha Complex , built to survive a nuclear apocalypse , clone - citizen in principal - colorize jumpsuits go , labor , and die at the whim of the " Friend Computer , " a saccharine and homicidal artificial intelligence administrator driven harebrained by bungled software system patches and a inveterate fear of sabotage .
thespian character take on the office of Troubleshooters , expendable citizen drafted by Friend Computer to solve problem and destroy any commie , mutants , or secret confederacy in Alpha Complex . Many of these Troubleshooters microcomputer are in secret communists , mutants or members of secret conspiracies , a complication that encouragesParanoiaplayer characters to lie down , keep mystery , commit acts of sabotage , and barefacedly sell out their fellow Troubleshooters during Friend Computer ’s notoriously deadly commission debriefing .
Tabletop RPG - First They Came
The title ofFirst They get along : A Blindfold Roleplaying Game , is a paraphrasing of a quote made by Martin Niemöller , a German Lutheran pastor , in the viewing of World War II and the collapse of the Third Reich . The mount ofFirst They Came , late funded on Kickstarter , is 1942 Berlin . The player characters are fugitives from the Nazi Regime , persecuted for their faith , ethnicity , and political affiliation , try urgently to hide in an attic from the prying optic of the Gestapo secret police . The full RPG outfit forFirst They Camewill include audio recording and papers handout to make extra verisimilitude and put players in the shoes of dissidents from this geological era of history .
Tabletop RPG - Night Witches
nighttime Witchesis an"Apocalypse World " instigate RPGabout real - life heroes from the Eastern Front of World War II , the " Night Witches " aerial regiment of women aviators who fought for the Soviet Union against the Nazis . TheNight WitchesRPG centre specifically on the 588th Night Bomber Regiment , who flew every night bombing raids against German frontlines with outdated biplane , minimum logistic sustenance , and no minor amount of contempt from their " associate " man .
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The character " Playbooks " inNight Witchesembody different archetypes of unity pilots . peculiar " move " imitate scenario such as bombing prey at dark , requisition supplying , and surviving " Informal Interviews " with NKVD secret police agents eager to find and do " double-dealer " and " revolutionist . "
Tabletop RPG - Spire: The City Must Fall & Heart: The City Beneath
Spire : The City Must Fallis adark punk fantasy RPGabout members of a Dark Elf resistance movement fighting to rectify their Admiralty mile - high tower of a city from the cybernetic High Elves who rule it with an iron fist . As members of the disaffected and ruthless Ministry , player characters oppose to preserve Drow traditions , religion , and culture in the face of High Elf try at assimilation , while completing missions of sabotage , assassination , and trouble - stir that test the terminal point of their wits , settle , and honourable principles . On the more empowering side , player can also create interesting twists on classic heroic phantasy PCs using reference classes such as Hyena Priests , Gang Knights , and half - spider Midwives .
nitty-gritty : The City Beneath , a sis plot toSpire : The City Must Falland a grim twist onDungeons & Dragons , is about explorer exploring a keep , hungry donjon of incubus bury deep beneath the Spire : Many of the characters and scavengers who brave this shifting internal ear are refugees braving a infernal domain so as to escape the monocracy of the occupied city above .
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Source : Kickstarter , Mongoose Publishing
